akes it so heavy? And how long has it lain so heavy upon thee? 'I
cannot run,' said the man, 'because of the burden on my back.' And it
has been noticed of you that you do not laugh, or run, or dress, or
dance, or walk, or eat, or drink as once you did. All men see that there
is some burden on your back; some sore burden on your heart and your
mind. Do you see yonder wicket gate? Do you see yonder shining light?
There is no light in all the horizon for you but yonder light over the
gate. Keep it in your eye; make straight, and make at once for it, and
He who keeps the gate and keeps the light burning over it, He will tell
you what to do with your burden. He told John Gifford, and He told John
Bunyan, till both their burdens rolled off their backs, and they saw them
no more. What would you not give to-night to be released like them? Do
you not see yonder shining light?

Having set Christian fairly on the way to the wicket gate, Evangelist
leaves him in order to seek out and assist some other seeker. But
yesterday he had set Faithful's face to the celestial city, and he is off
now to look for another pilgrim. We know some of Christian's adventures
and episodes after Evangelist left him, but we do not take up these at
present. We pass on to the next time that Evangelist finds Christian,
and he finds him in a sorry plight. He has listened to bad advice. He
has gone off the right road, he has lost sight of the gate, and all the
thunders and lightnings of Sinai are rolling and flashing out against
him. What doest thou here of all men in the world? asked Evangelist,
with a severe and dreadful countenance. Did I not direct thee to His
gate, and why art thou here? Christian told him that a fair-spoken man
had met him, and had persuaded him to take an easier and shorter way of
getting rid of his burden. Read the whole place for yourselves. The end
of it was that Evangelist set Christian right again, and gave him two
counsels which would be his salvation if he attended to them: Strive to
enter in at the strait gate, and, Take up thy cross daily. He would need
more counsel afterwards than that; but, meantime, that was enough. Let
Christian follow that, and he would before long be rid of his burden.

In the introductory lecture Bishop Butler has been commended and praised
as a moralist, and certainly not one word beyond his deserts; but an
evangelical preacher cannot send any man with the burden of a bad past
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